Hinge construction



July 4, 1950 F. A. SAAF HINGE CONSTRUCTION Filed DeO. 27, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet l n lllllllllllllla ,O musk Saczf July 4, 1950 F. A. sAAF 2,513,366

HINGE CONSTRUCTION Filed Dec. 27, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 5/5 25 gg u l 57 i IL 47"` 58" mi su: lli l Ill l Il I l .46|... 'il 1 il' Z6 '1 g1 45A 51h i 28 :.Ig' jl 57' I I l Patented .uly 4, y195i? HINGE CONSTRUCTION Fritz A. Saaf, Aurora, Ill.,` assignor to All-Steel- Equip Company, a corporation of Illinois Application December 27, 1945, Serial No. 637,3 96 2 Claims. (Cl. 189-46) l This invention relates to means for securing metal doors in door openings formed by metal walls, and, for the purpose of the present disclosure, will be` described as applied specifically to the construction of metal lockers and the like.

v A locker of the general type under consideration is of sheet metal construction throughout, the fabrication of the locker including such operations as shearing, forming, welding, riveting andbolting. The door panel is a sheet of metal having a front or face portion and inwardly turned edge flanges.

For mounting the door panel separate hinge straps for carrying pintles are commonly affixed to the metal door post on one side of the door opening, and the anged door panel is apertured to receive the hinge strap so that the pintles may cooperate with inner surfaces of the door panel.

The sheet metal of the door panel usually forms be assembled with less labor than heretofore required.`

' One object of my invention is to provide a combination for hingedly mounting a sheet metal door on a sheet metal door post, in which combination the door post is so constructed as to reduce the number of separate elements in the combination. More particularly stated, this object is to provide an integral hinge strap in the door post construction thereby making it unnecessary to fabricatels'uch a strap separately and further eliminating the usual step of attaching the hinge strap to the door post.

A group of objects ofthe invention relate to the construction of the retaining member, per se.

These objects include: to provide a retaining member for mounting on the inner side of a door panel'that will compensate at least in part for the weakening ofthe door panel by the aperture that receives the hinge strap; to provide a retaining member that stiiens the edge flange of the door panel; to provide a retaining member that makes extensive reenforcing contact `both with. the edge yflange of the door and the adja-` cent portionV of the panel face; to provide a sheet metal retaining member with two legs forming an angle, `the sheet metal being swaged or offset across the vertex of the angle to stiffen the two legs with reference to each other; to provide a retaining member having exceedingly strong portions in contact withl the ends of the associated pintle; to provide a retaining member formed with bosses for retaining contact with the associated pintle; and to provide a retaining member that may be mounted on a door member by placing tongues integral with one of said members through complementary slots in the other of said members, and then bending or deforming said tongues to effectively engage the two member with each other.

A further object of the invention is to provide a sheet metal door post construction that is adapted for various modes of cooperation with a door. In general this object is attained by bend'- ing the sheet metal of the door post upon itself to form a folded edge for one side of a doorway, and in effect peeling off a tongue from the inner layer'of sheet metal to extend laterally from the folded edge for various purposes of cooperation with the door. In one practice the tongue of metal replaces the usual hinge strap. y In another practice the tongue of metal is formed to serve as a keeper in the combination of elements for latching the door.I

The above and other objects and advantages of my-invention will become apparent from the following detailed description takenA with the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings, which are to be regarded as merely illustrative: Fig. 1 is a yperspective view of a steel locker embodying a preferred practice of my invention; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective View, on an enlarged scale, of an upper front corner of the locker,the view being taken from inside the locker with the door closed; f Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section taken as indicated by the line 3 3 of Fig. 2; Figs. 4 and 5 are fragmentary horizontal sec-l` tions taken as indicated by lines 1-4 and 5 5; respectively, of Fig. 3; f Fig. 6 is a fragmentary elevational View from inside the locker, with the door swung open;

Fig. '7 is a fragmentary perspective View of a sheet metal door post formed with the hinge strap integral therewith; A h Fig. v8 is a perspective view of the retaining' means for the pintle employed in my preferred'- hinge combination; Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a portion ofwa.

. the top panel 2l. similar construction.

` gagement by the door catch`30.

,2 and 4).

iianged door panel as constructed in the preferred practice of my invention;

Fig. is a fragmentary perspective View of a sheet metal door post with a keeper integral therewith; and

Fig. 1l is a fragmentary horizontal section 3 showing how the door post of Fig. 10 cooperates in the latching of a door.

The drawings show a metal locker the structure of which includes two sidepanels or sheets 20, a top panel or sheet 2l, two door posts `or jambs 22 and 23 forming the sides of a door opening, a lint'el member 25v at thetopy of the .able for retracting the catch, and Va keyhole Vmeans 132 for receiving a key. to lock the latch against retraction.

` The two door posts 22 and 23 are preferably of the folded sheet metal construction shown in Figs. 7 and 11, respectively. In each of these figures the illustrated door post is of angular configuration with a front leg 35 and a side leg 36. Each of the door posts is fabricated by bendv ing a single sheet of metal back on itself to form la folded edge 31 for one side of the door opening of the locker. The outer layer of metal and the inner layer of metal of each door post lie close together in the front leg 35 but in the side leg 36 are spaced apart to form a deep narrow channel 38 to receive the corresponding side panelZ ofthe locker. such as spot welding, riveting or bolting, may be employed to secure the side panels in the channels 33, spot Welding being preferred.

The lintel at the top of the doorway may be of the saine general construction as the door 1 post. Thus Fig. 2 shows the lintel 25 formed with a front leg 40 and Ia top leg 4I, 'the top leg providing a channel to'r'eceive the margin of The door l'sill 26 mayibe of metal for vcooperation with the door panel 21.

Figs.r 10 and 11 depict one example in which the inner layer of metal of the door post 23 is Vcut away, as indicated at 42, to forma laterally extending tongue 43 to serveas a keeper for en- Fig.. 7 depicts a second example in which the inner layer oi metal of the door post 22 is cut away, as indias a hinge strap. The tongue or hinge strap 46 is formed to cylindrical configuration to emi brace a suitable pintle orhingepin 4'1,k the strap and pintle being elements of thehinge means 28 heretofore mentioned.

Turning to the door construction, the .door panel 21l is provided on its hingeedge with an inward flange 56 which may be' return bent, as indicated at 5|, for reenforcement (see Figs. In like manner the freeA or swinging edge `'of the door may be formedwith an inward flange 52 (Fig. 11), which nangemay be return.

bent for` reenforcement. as .indicated at. 53. 'The top and bottom edges of the door may be pro- Any suitable expedient, v

vided with plain flanges 55, as best shown in Fig. 2.

To receive each of the hinge straps 46 the door panel 21 is cut away to provide a vertically elongated aperture 56, which aperture may be just long enough to clear the hinge strap if the pintle 41 is removable for insertion after the strap is passed through the aperture. In my preferred 1 constructionthe pintle 41 is xedly embraced by panel flange.

the hinge strap-'46, and the aperture 56 is suiiiciently elongated to clear both ends of the pintle.

Preferably the sheet metal of the door adjacent the ends of each aperture 56 is swaged or otherwise formed'to provide two sockets 51 for the two ends, respectively, of the pintle 41. As clearly revealed in Fig. 9, each of the sockets 51 is open from one side to permit the pintle 41 to be moved laterally into the sockets in the assembly procedure, and therefore suitable means, such as a retaining member generally ldesignated 60, is-frequired toI keep the vpintle seated. n I

While each retaining member 6i) may be attached to the door member21xby any suitable means, I prefer toprovide slots in one of the members andtoiprovide .tongues integral with theother; member forpassing through the slots into engagement with the other member. Rather than cut slots in theretaining member 60 I provide two slots 6| ,in the door member in the vicinity of each of the hinge apertures 56, as best shown in Fig. 9.

The lretaining member 60, which is preferably a sheet metal stamping, Ais ofangular crosssectional configuration with two legs, one leg 62 for extensive face to face contact with the inner surface of the door panel flange 50, and a secondleg 63 for extensive face to face contact with the inner surface of the face portion of the door panel. Integralrwith'the leg 62 are two tongues`65 and 66, corresponding to thetwo slots 6I in the door panel flange 56; It is contemplated that the two tongues will beV inserted into the slots and thenbent, as best shown in Figs. 3 and 6, into positiveV engagement with the door At least one of the tongues may be straight prior to use, the tongue 65 being thus shown in Fig. 8. VPreferably the othertongue 66 is preformed or prebent for the positive engagementwith the door panel flange, as shown in Fig. 8, so that in assembling the retaining member into engagement with the door panel fthe workman has the task of bending only one of the tongues. The assembly procedure consists of holding the retaining'l member approximately horizontal, inserting the leading portion ofthe tongue- 66, swinging the retaining member upward aboutl the tongue 66-as af pivot or 4fulcrum toY bring the otherv tongue 65 into the other slot 6l and then bendingk or'hammering over lthe tongue 65 to make the engagement positive.

A feature of the preferred practice of the invention is the stifening'of the retaining member 6U across the vertex' of the two legs Gland 263 by suitably swaging or offsetting the metal to` form reenforcements across the" vertex;v and a further feature is the employment 'of' such offset vto achieve purposes in addition to reenforcement.

y In the particular retaining"member` 60 Shown in to prevent marring of whatever surface nish is given the strap, such clearance being apparent in Fig. 4.

Further reinforcements across the vertex of the retaining member are achieved by offsetting the metal to form two transverse ribs 68 spaced from the offset ends of the central offset 61. The additional purpose achieved by adding the ribs 68 to the central offset 6l is the formation thereby of what may be termed two bosses for contact, respectively, with the two ends of the pintle 4l.

The described retaining member 60 provides inherent exceptional strength at the points of contact with the ends of the corresponding pintle 41 for a number of reasons. In the irst place, the retaining member is braced 'by extensive abutment both with the door panel flange 50 and the adjacent area of the face portion of the door panel. In the second place, the retaining member is exceedingly rigid by Virtue of the central offset 61 and the two lribs 68. In the third place, the metal of the retaining member extends in all directions from the points of contact with the pintle, the retaining member being distinguished in this respect from the use of relatively weak unsupported tongues in contact with the pintle. In the fourth place, the points of contact are strengthened by the bosses 10, a domed sheet metal configuration being stronger than a at o sheet. It is also to be noted that the concave surfaces of the bosses 10 provide relatively small areas in contact with the pintles, with consequent reduction in hinge friction.

My description in specific detail of a preferred form of the invention as required by Sec. 4888 R. S. will suggest to those skilled in the art various changes and substitutions within the scope of my appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In combination, a door post, a hinge pintle, a hinge strap on the door post mounting the pintle, a sheet metal door panel having a face portion and an inwardly extending flange lying adjacent the door post, said door panel having an aperture in said flange shaped to receive said hinge strap, and also having sockets formed at the ends of said aperture to receive the ends of said pintle, and a retaining member secured to said door panel and having portions abutting the ends of said pintle to hold the pintle in said sockets, said retaining member being of angular configuration with one leg extending along the inner surface of said face portion, and a second leg extending along the inner surface of said inward flange, whereby the retaining member reinforces said flange and compensates for the weakening of the door panel by said aperture, at least the intermediate portion of said retaining member being offset across the vertex formed by said two legs to clear the strap and to strengthen the angle between said legs.

2. A pintle-retaining and door-reinforcing member for use with a door having a face panel and a flanged edge apertured to receive a hinge pintle, said retaining member being of integral construction and comprising right angle leg portions, one of which is adapted to abut the face panel of the door, the other being adapted to abut and be secured to the anged edge of the door over the aperture therein, an inclined wall joining only the central portion of said legs, an attaching lug on the leg which abuts the door ange, and inwardly depressed reinforcing channels adjacent the ends of the retaining member, anking the inclined wall, and extending transversely to the vertex of the angle formed by said leg portion.

FRITZ A. SAAF.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,317,420 Berry Sept. 30, 1919 1,557,572 Ewing Oct. 20, 1925 2,222,428 Boettcher Nov. 19, 1940 2,300,405 Cook Nov. 3, 1942 2,345,719 Weil Apr. 4, 1944 

